Voyager semi broken from outdated webview

7 months ago by solrize to c/voyagerapp

I got an automatic Voyager update from F-droid and now it complains of an out of date Webview version and tells me to update Webview from the Play store. But I don't use the Play store and don't want to enroll an account there. I get all my apps from F-droid. Is there a fix or workaround from this? thanks. Android 14 on Motorola Stylus 5g 2023 if that matters.

danglybits27 5 points 7 months ago

I use Aurora Store installed from F-Droid to update Webview (and install or update any other apps from Play Store.) There's an anonymous login option or you can sign in, though I've never done that.

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solrize 4 points 7 months ago

Any trouble with or from the web view update itself?

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danglybits27 2 points 7 months ago

My apologies, I should have said "I used." I actually very recently discovered a module to replace Google's Webview with Open Webview (rooted device), and it's worked nicely so I likely will not see that particular update. Sorry!

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solrize 3 points 7 months ago

Well I can probably get the Google APK one way or another. I'm just slightly afraid to install it.

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aeharding 2 points 7 months ago

You dont need the Android System Webview in particular. Android supports alt webviews. The important part is to make sure its based on Blink 140 or newer (haven't tested other engines).

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MonkderVierte 1 point 7 months ago

Open Webview (rooted device)

That one always fails for me to download the webviews. Guess i'll have to look at the script, since Aurora has no webview update in queue.

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danglybits27 2 points 7 months ago

You have to pull down to refresh on the 'Updates' page in Aurora for it to check for updates (or I have to, anyway.)

Also, if it helps, I installed Open Webview via a Magisk module installed through the IzzyOnDroid Magisk repo in the MMRL app (from F-Droid.)

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mr_anny 4 points 7 months ago

Search webview apk and you'll find repisitories. I've used apkmirror. I should be safe.

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aeharding 3 points 7 months ago

Gotta keep your webview up to date! There's alternatives as described in the comments but yeah, having a version of Chromium older than a year old is pretty dangerous/insecure.

I think most 'normal' android users never really think about it because Google keeps their webview up to date automatically, but if you dont use Play Store this can be easily overlooked. Really important for device security though.

Edit: As for why Voyager requires System WebView >= 140... Android recently overhauled safe area insets and their rollout was kinda botched with poor backward compatibility. This is a side affect unfortunately.

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MonkderVierte 0 points 7 months ago

Edit: As for why Voyager requires System WebView >= 140... Android recently overhauled safe area insets and their rollout was kinda botched with poor backward compatibility.

But the app works fine with a "too old" webview. Why warn about it?

And please do feature detection instead of useragent parsing, if you do require some newest/uncommon features (but better don't require that).

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aeharding 3 points 7 months ago

And please do feature detection

I'm not sure how you'd do that with safe area insets. You could check for zero but some modern devices megitimately have zero safe area insets. Capacitor itself has to check Blink version for the SystemBars plugin.